About Me

My name is Spencer (formerly known as Dr. Paleo Ph.D.).
I am many things. I'm a 22-year-old, Bible-believing Christian. I trust my savior Jesus Christ above all else, and strive to follow Him unceasingly. My soul is that of the warrior's, and I seek to fulfill my duties as such. I am science-minded, and am pursuing a career in dinosaur paleontology.
I am for my God, and His Word, the Holy Bible. I am for the literal six-day interpretation of the Creation account as found in the book of Genesis. I am for my country and its military, and I will give my support to those who defend this nation and its people, even if it means that we are forced to wage war. I am for homeschooling, the rights of parents and the unborn, the Biblical family, and courtship. I am for the rights of gun owners, and believe in carrying. I am for martial arts, and advocate the study of those means necessary to protect the family, the faithful, and the defenseless. I am for the dying ways of chivalry; "Women and Children First!" is a creed well worth dying for. I am for conservatism, and did I mention that I'm also a states' rights Confederate flag-waving Rebel?
This is me.
Welcome to my blog.

"Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. Captain, that is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave."--Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

"God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and all would be equally brave."--Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

"Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."--Robert E. Lee

"Never give in—-never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."--Winston S. Churchill

"Look! There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here today and we will conquer! Rally behind the Virginians!"--Gen. Bernard E. Bee

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Monday, May 21, 2007

On the Conundrum of Mathematical Science, or, How Stupid Math is

Okay, okay, math isn't stupid, but something rather interesting appeared in my math book today.

According to my textbook (Algebra 2, Bob Jones University press), 2 grams of hydrogen contains 6.02 x 10>23* molecules. Wait a minute. Did they just say two? Yes, they did!

So, what's wrong with that? Well, the number 6.02 x 10>23 is called a "mole," just like the way we say that the number 12 is a "dozen." So, how do we know how many grams of any given element exist in a sample? Simple. Look at a chemist's best friend:

Behold, ye peasants, the mighty Periodic Table of the Elements, ruler of all the land!

First, since we are dealing with the element hydrogen, we need to know the abbreviation for Hydrogen. This is "H" (this one is unusually simple, I assure you). See if you can find it on what is often called "the chart." Can you?

Okay, if you can't it's on the very top left of the chart. Now, never mind that all that info in that little box, check out that number on the top left of the "H." What is it? 1.01. This number is in a unit called "atomic mass units" (abbreviated amu), which, for today, you'll just imagine as grams (they are similar in this sense). Basically, it tells us the mass of one atom of that particular element. So what's that mean? Well, this is where the "mole," that long 6.02 x 10>23 number, comes into play.

If you noticed, every element on the chart has this amu number. The amount of molecules in one "mole" of hydrogen, or any other element, is whatever that amu number is. Thus there are not two grams of hydrogen molecules in a mole (6.02 x 10>23). There are 1.01! You might say it comes from rounding errors, but why don't you try rounding 1.01 to make it into 2? Yeah, you can't.

So, just in case none of that made any sense, they made a big boo-boo in the book. Naughty math people!

Dr. Paleo Ph.D.

* Since I unfortunately cannot have superscripts on blogger, "10>23" means "10 to the 23rd power," a notation system I was taught by a very helpful member of the email help line at Apologia Science (www.highschoolscience.com) [I am taking the brilliant Dr. Jay L. Wile's Exploring Creation with Chemistry]

Disclaimer: I am stupid as well, so there might very well be a dreadful scientific error in this post. :-P